'Million to one' black and white twins celebrate first birthday

Marcia and Millie Biggs were hard to tell apart when they were born within minutes of each other a year ago.

But the twin sisters are growing up in a delightfully different way.

Blue-eyed Marcia has inherited their mother Amanda's fair complexion and strawberry blonde hair. Millie is more obviously of mixed race and clearly takes after their father, Michael, who is of Jamaican origin.

As the sisters celebrated their first birthday, their 39-year-old mother said: "They weren't identical twins but they looked alike when they were born. It was only when they were a few weeks old that you started to notice the differences between them. "Millie started getting darker skinned, much more like her dad, particularly on her legs.

"At more or less the same time, Marcia also started to develop a lighter complexion and her hair also began to get blonder and curlier.

"People have said that it's one of those unusual things to do with the genes. It's very rare that it happens - a one-in-a-million chance. They are both well cherished."